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Quantum meets AI

Quandela and Mila join forces to develop hybrid artificial intelligence and quantum computing technologies. [French version below] Montreal, Quebec and Paris, France – July 8, 2025 – Quandela, a European […]

Quandela and Mila join forces to develop hybrid artificial intelligence and quantum computing technologies. [French version below]

Montreal, Quebec and Paris, France – July 8, 2025 – Quandela, a European leader in photonic quantum computing, and Mila, the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, announce a partnership to explore the potential of hybrid technologies combining machine learning and quantum computing.  

This strategic collaboration will focus on the development and evaluation of innovative quantum machine learning (QML) models, positioning both organizations at the forefront of this new technological frontier.  

“This partnership with Mila represents a crucial step in our mission to explore concrete applications of quantum computing in the field of artificial intelligence,” says Valérian Giesz, co-founder and COO of Quandela. “By combining our expertise in photonic quantum computing with Mila’s excellence in artificial intelligence, we are confident we can accelerate the development of solutions that will transform many sectors.”   

“The intersection of artificial intelligence and quantum computing represents a field with great potential,” said Guillaume Rabusseau, Core Academic Member at Mila and Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal. “Our collaboration with Quandela is an opportunity to explore how quantum approaches can enrich and potentially revolutionize current machine learning paradigms.” 

Key objectives of the partnership

The collaboration between Quandela and Mila will focus on four main areas: 

1.Benchmarking: Comparing the performance of quantum machine learning (QML) models on structured data against classical approaches.

2.Identifying quantum advantages: Determining under which conditions quantum methods can offer significant advantages in terms of accuracy, resource utilization and scalability. 

3.Solving training challenges: Develop innovative solutions to overcome known challenges in training quantum models. 

4.Experimental validation: Integrating both simulation-based studies and experiments on real quantum hardware to assess the potential of QML in real-world applications.  

A stronger foothold in Canada

This partnership with Mila marks another step in Quandela’s expansion in Canada, following the recent installation of a quantum computer in Sherbrooke. This growing presence underscores Quandela’s commitment to actively contribute to the development of the Canadian quantum ecosystem, recognized worldwide for its excellence.  

“The implementation of our quantum technology in Sherbrooke, followed by this partnership with Mila, illustrates our long-term vision for Canada,” emphasizes Valérian Giesz. “We are impressed by the vitality of the Canadian innovation ecosystem and determined to play a significant role in it.”    
 
About Mila

Founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio of the University of Montreal, Mila is the world’s largest academic research center for deep learning, bringing together over 1,300 specialized researchers in machine learning. Based in Montreal and funded in part by the Government of Canada through the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, Mila’s mission is to be a global center for scientific advancements that inspire innovation and the growth of AI for the benefit of all. Mila is a globally recognized non-profit organization for its significant contributions to deep learning, especially in the fields of language modeling, automatic translation, object recognition, and generative models. For more information, visit mila.quebec.    

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Quandela et Mila s’associent pour développer des technologies hybrides combinant intelligence artificielle et informatique quantique 

Montréal, Québec et Paris, France – 8 juillet 2025 – Quandela, leader européen de l’informatique quantique photonique, et Mila, l’Institut québécois d’intelligence artificielle, annoncent un partenariat visant à explorer le potentiel des technologies hybrides combinant l’apprentissage automatique et l’informatique quantique.  

Cette collaboration stratégique se concentrera sur le développement et l’évaluation de modèles d’apprentissage automatique quantique (QML) innovants, positionnant les deux organisations à l’avant-garde de cette nouvelle frontière technologique.  

« Ce partenariat avec Mila représente une étape cruciale dans notre mission d’explorer les applications concrètes de l’informatique quantique dans le domaine de l’intelligence artificielle», déclare Valérian Giesz, cofondateur et directeur des opérations de Quandela. « En combinant notre expertise en informatique quantique photonique avec l’excellence de Mila en intelligence artificielle, nous sommes convaincus de pouvoir accélérer le développement de solutions qui transformeront de nombreux secteurs. » 

« L’intersection de l’intelligence artificielle et de l’informatique quantique représente un domaine avec un très grand potentiel, » a affirmé Guillaume Rabusseau, Membre académique principal de Mila et Professeur adjoint à l’Université de Montréal. « Notre collaboration avec Quandela sera une occasion d’explorer comment les approches quantiques peuvent enrichir et potentiellement révolutionner les paradigmes actuels d’apprentissage automatique. »  

Objectifs clés du partenariat
La collaboration entre Quandela et Mila s’articulera autour de quatre axes principaux : 

1.Évaluation comparative : Comparer les performances des modèles d’apprentissage automatique quantique (QML) sur des données structurées par rapport aux approches classiques. 

2.Identification des avantages quantiques : Déterminer dans quelles conditions les méthodes quantiques peuvent offrir des avantages significatifs en termes de précision, d’utilisation des ressources et d’extensibilité. 

3.Résolution des défis d’entraînement: Développer des solutions innovantes pour surmonter les défis connus liés à l’entraînement de modèles quantiques. 

4.Validation expérimentale : Intégrer à la fois des études basées sur des simulations et des expériences sur du matériel quantique réel pour évaluer le potentiel du QML dans des applications concrètes.  

Un ancrage renforcé au Canada

Ce partenariat avec Mila marque une nouvelle étape dans l’expansion de Quandela au Canada, après l’installation récente d’un ordinateur quantique à Sherbrooke. Cette présence croissante témoigne de l’engagement de Quandela à contribuer activement au développement de l’écosystème quantique canadien, reconnu mondialement pour son excellence.  « L’installation de notre technologie quantique à Sherbrooke, suivie de ce partenariat avec Mila, illustre notre vision à long terme pour le Canada », souligne Valérian Giesz. « Nous sommes impressionnés par la vitalité de l’écosystème d’innovation canadien et déterminés à y jouer un rôle significatif.»   

À propos de Mila

Fondé par le professeur Yoshua Bengio de l’Université de Montréal, Mila est le plus grand centre de recherche universitaire en apprentissage profond au monde, rassemblant plus de 1 300 chercheur·euse·s spécialisé·e·s dans le domaine de l’apprentissage automatique. Basé à Montréal et financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada dans le cadre de la Stratégie pancanadienne en matière d’IA, Mila a pour mission d’être un pôle mondial d’avancées scientifiques qui inspire l’innovation et le développement de l’IA au bénéfice de tous·tes. Mila est une organisation à but non lucratif reconnue mondialement pour ses importantes contributions au domaine de l’apprentissage profond, en particulier dans les domaines de la modélisation du langage, de la traduction automatique, de la reconnaissance d’objets et des modèles génératifs. Pour en savoir plus, visitez mila.quebec. 

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Quandela and OVHcloud join forces to democratize quantum machine learning with MerLin

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At the international Adopt AI event in Paris, Quandela and OVHcloud announce a strategic initiative to bring closer AI and quantum computing thanks to MerLin, Quandela’s quantum machine learning environment. This collaboration will enable researchers and companies to prototype and simulate hybrid models on NVIDIA GPUs before testing them on Quandela’s photonic quantum computers, directly accessible from OVHcloud’s cloud platform.

Paris, Roubaix (France), November 25, 2025 – Quandela, European leader in photonic quantum computing, and OVHcloud, a major European cloud provider, announce that MerLin – the first programming language and environment dedicated to quantum machine learning – will be made available on OVHcloud’s platform starting mid-2026. This unified approach will accelerate the development of hybrid applications within a sovereign cloud environment.

A bridge between AI and quantum

Unveiled in summer 2025, MerLin lays the groundwork for a new generation of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) tools, integrated into standard AI frameworks such as PyTorch and scikit-learn.
Now, thanks to its integration into the OVHcloud platform, users will be able to design, simulate, and test their hybrid AI-Quantum neural networks in a unified cloud environment powered by NVIDIA GPUs, a shared partner of both companies.

This approach will accelerate the development of industrial quantum applications: users will first be able to run their simulations on GPUs, then test and validate their models on Quandela’s photonic quantum computers, hosted and operated within OVHcloud.

A clear quantum roadmap

As part of this partnership, OVHcloud has published its quantum roadmap, announcing that Quandela’s quantum computers will become available on its cloud platform in mid-2026. The first systems to be offered will be BELENOS, a 12-qubit photonic processor, and CANOPUS, a 24-qubit photonic processor.

This deployment will be a major milestone in integrating quantum computing into the cloud, paving the way for democratized and sovereign access to European quantum power.

This partnership with OVHcloud perfectly embodies our vision: to make quantum accessible and useful for AI experts. With MerLin, we provide a seamless environment – from GPU to quantum processor – allowing the exploration of new hybrid algorithms and accelerating the journey from concept to real-world application,” says Jean Senellart, Chief Product Officer at Quandela.

With MerLin, data scientists finally have an accessible framework that does not require quantum computing skills – an actual tool that democratizes its use for the most innovative function in companies: data science,” says Fanny Bouton, Quantum Lead and Product Manager at OVHcloud.

Toward a sovereign European quantum cloud

By combining their expertise – photonics and hybrid algorithms for Quandela, cloud and sovereign infrastructure for OVHcloud, GPU acceleration for NVIDIA – the two partners are laying the foundations of a competitive and open European quantum ecosystem. An ecosystem expected to foster the emergence of hybrid applications in fields such as cybersecurity, finance, energy, healthcare, and logistics.

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Quandela Accelerates Quantum Spin-Photon Simulationby 20,000x with NVIDIA CUDA-Q

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Quandela and NVIDIA have achieved a transformative 20,000x acceleration in quantum photonics simulation using NVIDIA CUDA-Q the GPU-accelerated platform for hybrid quantum-classical computing. This breakthrough dramatically reduces development cycles for quantum optical hardware from months to hours, advancing Quandela’s Spin–Photonic Quantum Computing (SPOQC) architecture for fault-tolerant quantum computing while also creating new opportunities for hybrid quantum–classical computing approaches that combine the strengths of both paradigms.

The advance builds on Quandela’s Zero-Photon Generator (ZPG)method, which reformulates complex photon-mediated dynamics into parallelizable master equations, CUDA-Q’s master equation solver enhanced in v0.12 with support for custom superoperators andbatched Liouvillian evolution, make it possible to run hundreds of open-system simulations simultaneously on a single NVIDIA Hopper GPU, reaching an acceleration of four orders of magnitude compared to existing simulation tools. Together, these advances turn previously intractable light–matter simulations into a real-time engineering tool.

Dr. Jean Senellart, Chief Product Officer of Quandela, said: “This collaboration with NVIDIA represents a paradigm shift in how we approach quantum hardware development. What once took weeks of computation can now be done in minutes, enabling us to explore thousands of design variations and accelerate our roadmap to fault-tolerant photonic quantum processors.

The collaboration demonstrates how GPU acceleration is now redefining quantum research. CUDA-Q v0.12.0 introduces the new superoperator and batching features developed through this joint effort, now publicly available for researchers and developers.

Sam Stanwyck, Group Product Manager for quantum computing at NVIDIA, commented: “Development of larger and more performant quantum hardware requires increasingly more complex simulations. Quandela’s work with CUDA-Q shows how GPU-accelerated simulations are compressing months of quantum hardware development into hours, and accelerating the development of useful accelerated quantum supercomputers.

This milestone sets a new benchmark for simulating distributed spin–photon quantum gates, supporting Quandela’s broader mission to build fault-tolerant photonic quantum processors. Detailed benchmarks and implementation resources are available in the Quandela technical blog.

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Conclusions from the Franco-German Dialogue of Quantum Technology Players 2025

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Quantum Technologies hold great economic potential. That is why it is in Europe’s interest to secure a leading position in their development and industrial application.

The French German Dialogue of Quantum Technology Players on September 23, 2025 in Paris and Massy (France), was organized by the Quantum Technology and Application Consortium (QUTAC), Le lab Quantique, Quandela, CEA, Fraunhofer, with support from the French embassy in Germany and the German embassy in France. The dialogue brought together more than 60 experts, managers and decision-makers from innovation, corporates, research and public authorities from France and Germany.

Following the dialogue, participants identified the following key challenges for building Europe’s quantum future:

  1. Use Cases: A concrete, industry-driven pipeline of end-to-end use cases should be developed, aligned with realistic expectations and a clear definition of what constitutes a “quantum advantage”.
  2. Success Stories: Successful examples that translate scientific achievements into businesses cases with tangible return on investment and operational impact should act as references across sectors.
  3. Benchmarking and management of expectations: A focus should be given to benchmarking our progress toward error-corrected and fault-tolerant systems. These will determine the long-term viability and sovereignty of European quantum technologies.
  4. European champions: Champions at the European level should be nurtured to build scale and reduce fragmentation, all while connecting national strengths, particularly in strategic domains.
  5. Trust / Intellectual Property: Intellectual property rules in both countries should be clarified and harmonized, while patents should continue to be incentivized.
  6. European strategies: Joint roadmaps and funding strategies should be developed across countries to avoid duplicating efforts and promote shared projects with long-term impact.
  7. Funding: Investment funds and private capital should be mobilised to stimulate industrial co-development and adoption of quantum solutions. Public funding programs should expand, and public authorities and funding agencies should streamline cross-border funding through a single-entry point.
  8. Talents: Talent training should be prioritised, for example by developing shared talent platforms and joint doctoral schools and study schemes.
  9. Gathering of ecosystems among France and Germany: Creative formats of collaboration across countries should be developed, such as cross invitations at meetings, events, technology fairs, dedicated learning expeditions, and others.
  10. Dialogue governance: The Franco-German dialogue of quantum technology players should be followed up and expanded. Governance mechanisms should be supported jointly by France and Germany to ensure continuity, coordination, accountability, alignment with national strategies and dissemination of results and increased impact.

To master these challenges, participants have formulated concrete actions. You can find these in the complete version of our conclusion document, which you can download here